Vista Running Slow - Check Preferred DNS Server

Windows Vista Running Slow - Check Preferred DNS Server

My advice on speeding up Vista is aimed primarily at those who have a reasonable spec machine.
I imagine this to be the situation, you have installed Vista without problem, but you are disappointed because it is running slowly, and, or programs hang. In a nutshell, you would expect XP to run faster on that particular hardware.

1b) Machine Spec - Unreasonable will not even run the Basic Vista Edition

CPU - 133 MHz (800 MHz very minimum)

RAM - 256 MB (512 MB minimum)

Graphics card - 32 MB (128 MB minimum)

Disk - 20 GB (40 GB Minimum)

2) Clean, New Installation of Vista -v- Upgrade from XP

Choose a clean installation, avoid upgrading from XP. If you MUST upgrade, then download the Vista Upgrade Advisor and then obey every single instruction. If the Upgrade Advisor says remove
software, or upgrade hardware, then obey. You cannot pick and choose, you must comply in full, or else your upgrade to Vista will result in poor performance.

When I booted Vista everything worked fine, Windows Explorer opened in about 2 seconds, just as fast as it launched in XP. However, after
about 30 minutes the same explorer based activities suffered an excruciating 20 second delay. Other symptoms included delay a when opening files. Applications such as Word and Excel would hang for 30
seconds, or more, when you asked them to open a file. Moreover, the delay was consistent and reproducible.

I checked Vista's Task Manager. CPU activity was low, and there was only one instance of explorer. My conclusion: there was no
suspicious virus activity, and certainly there was no program hogging the processor.

Sleep and HibernationAnother related symptom occurred when Vista emerged from either sleep
or hibernation. Sometimes the only way to get any action was to hold down the on / off button until Vista went into restart mode. In addition to losing time, and possibly data, this hardware reset
could not do the machine any good. While this sleep / hibernate problem disappeared once I set the DNS server (as described later), there are numerous reports of problems using these power-saving
settings. See more on troubleshooting hibernation.

Guy
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When I discovered that DNS
configuration was the root cause of Vista running slow and hanging, I was simultaneously relieved and
embarrassed. Quite why DNS server configuration caused my explorer to hang, I have yet to discover, all that I can say is that the following
actions cured my problem.

My situation was this; the Vista machine had joined a
domain. I began with basic TCP/IP troubleshooting techniques. All machines were on the standard 192.168.1 local network. Machine 192.1.68.1.200 was a Windows Server 2003 machine, which had been
successfully providing local DNS information to XP machines for two years.

Where I went wrong, or where Vista behaves differently, is that Ping servername.domain.com
worked from the XP machines. I have not exhausted this line of research, instead I focused on re-configuring TCP/IP Properties, DNS settings.

One complication was that my that each XP machines correctly
obtained its IP address from the DHCP server, whereas the Vista machines got their IP address from an
intelligent router / hub. However, even when I disabled DHCP on the router, the problem persisted,
until I reconfigured the 006 DNS scope settings as outlined below.

Ipconfig / all at the Vista machine

IP
Address of Vista Machine 192.168.1.1

IP Address of First (Preferred) DNS server 192.168.1.254 Hmm... this is the IP of the router, and not the server.IP Address of Second DNS server
192.168.1.200. The IP address of the actual local DNS server.

As we will see, the root cause seems to be that the local DNS server is not the primary DNS server. By that I mean the actual DNS
server on the local subnet is not the First entry in the Vista's list of DNS servers. (See diagrams below.)

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A Vista machine joined to a domain, ought to be able to ping its domain controller by fully qualified domain name, especially when both are on the same subnet. Quite how name resolution problem is
related to the Vista machine running slowly I am not sure.

Manual IP address v DHCP

There are two solution depending on whether or not your Vista machine is configured as a DHCP client. When troubleshooting this
slow Vista problem, I find it more convenient to experiment with the DNS server settings manually, than to alter the DHCP Scope options at the server.

What I can say is that drilling down to the Vista
machine's TCP/IP properties, and then changing the DNS server IP address, solved the slow explorer problem for me. By showing you what I did, I hope that you can make these changes on your Vista machine, naturally, you will need to research the IP address of your DNS server. Optionally, you will need the IP address of your router or internet gateway.

What I did was to explicitly set the IP address of the
Preferred DNS server. I also
set the router as the Alternative DNS server; my idea was to preserve internet connectivity.

Instructions:

Click on: Start Orb

Select: Control Panel

Network and Internet, Network Connections

Double Click the Local Network Connection

Double Click Internet Protocol 4 (TCP/IPv4) See opposite.

Click: Use the following DNS server addresses(Previously set to: Obtain DNS automatically)

Check the Preferred DNS server: (See screenshot)

Type in the name of YOUR DNS server

Option: Check the Alternative DNS server

Type in the name of YOUR routerSee below.

Note 1: The previous setting had been: Obtain a DNS address automatically. However the
primary DNS server was 192.168.1.254, while 192.168.1.200 was the secondary DNS server.

Note 2:
What I found was that setting the Windows Server 2003 machine as the Alternative DNS (and the router to the Preferred DNS Server) did not work. Setting the IP address this way around caused the slow
explorer
behavior to return. In my experiment, the Local DNS server must be the Preferred DNS server.

DHCP Solution (Better)

While
the above method for configuring the DNS server suits troubleshooting, for a long term solution on a DHCP network, configuring the Scope is a better option. I am assuming you are familiar with DHCP
configuration, in which case you may know that the DNS Server is Scope type 006. What I found was
that you need to make sure that very DNS server is the first option on the IP address list.

Where you have more than one DNS server, or a gateway to another DNS server, than you can experiment with the
order by clicking on the Up and Down buttons.

When you apply this technique, use Ipconfig on the Vista client to check what's happening. Remember 'Run as administrator' before you launch the command
prompt, otherwise ipconfig /renew will not work. The other command that you need is ipconfig /all, this should display all the DNS servers. Furthermore, the order revealed by ipconfig /all should
match that set on the DHCP server's Option 006. (See screenshot to the right).

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For
problems relating to the following areas, I would try turning off the Firewall at both the Vista end and at the server end.

NO network connectivity from Vista to the Server

Machine cannot join the domain

Remote Desktop fails

Remote Assistance not possible

It almost goes without saying that turning off the firewall is only designed as a temporary measure to help you isolate the problem. If this works then refine the technique by allowing
the appropriate port or service.

Check the Event Logs, not just the System, but also the Application Log.
Incidentally, the new Vista summary screens are good. Start with Critical errors in the last 24hrs.Click on: Start Orb
| Start Search - Event Viewer.

Ask the
question: 'Was the Vista explorer ever fast?' (Did it ever work). If 'Yes', what software did you add? It surprised me to learn that it is possible to install certain incompatible programs, which then
slow down explorer.

Check the Task Manager (Press Ctrl +Shift +Esc), Processes Tab. Maximise the window, make is sort on the CPU column. Anything suspicious? Could it be Vista
indexing? Happens on a newly installed machine.Could a virus checker be active, worse could a virus be active.

Disable IPv6 - Not essential, but some people report this cured their problems.

Upgrade your router. Vista may work, but only slowly with old routers. This variation of the problem likely to be confined to Internet Browsing, rather than Windows Explorer related.